Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
Not as a Meddler
1 Peter 4:15-16
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler in other men’s matters. · WEB
A list of three serious crimes ends in a fourth item that is not a crime at all, and the letter puts it there deliberately.
Verse 15 sets a limit on the blessedness just announced. Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, or an evildoer — three categories nobody would dispute — and then a fourth, which sits oddly beside them: one who meddles in other people's affairs.
The last word is rare and appears to have been built for the occasion, joining oversight to what belongs to someone else. Its placement is the argument. A congregation convinced it possesses the truth about everything, living among neighbors it considers ignorant, will be tempted to manage those neighbors' business — and the letter files that impulse next to theft. Trouble earned that way is not persecution, and the sufferer gets no credit for it.
Verse 16 gives the one case that does count, and names it: suffering as a Christian. The term is rare in Scripture and appears to have started as an outsiders' label rather than a self-description, which fits a letter about being spoken against.
What is asked is that the sufferer not be ashamed — the natural response to a name used as an insult — and instead glorify God in this name. The insult is not answered, and it is not accepted as an insult either. It is used.
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